The use of an electronic printing aggregate, or a print unit or a printer head, respectively, frequently also called “cartridge”, in a hand stamp has become an ever increasing concern of hand stamp manufacturers in recent times. On the one hand, there have been approaches to movably attach the respective printer head, or cartridge, in a housing so as to produce, as a print on a substrate, in particular a sheet of paper, an image that is large relative to the printer head. In this case, the printer head may, in particular, be an ink jet printer head, yet optionally also a wire matrix printer or a thermal printer head. Such a stamp-like printer is, for instance, disclosed in EP 598 251 A1. On the other hand, there have been proposals to attach the printer head, or the printing unit cartridge, firmly in a housing and manually move the printing device during printing, cf. e.g. DE 10 2005 014 227 B4, which describes an electronic printing device of this type. There, printing data electronically stored in a memory are supplied to the printer head in the housing. An electric connection of the printing cartridge, in particular the ink jet printer head, to the memory provided in the housing of the device, is thus required in addition to the general power supply, in particular via a suitable activation.
From US 2007/0120937 A1, a similar printing device is known, which is manually moved over a base to produce prints on the same. There, a thermal printer is, for instance, mentioned as printer. That thermal printer, or generally the printing unit cartridge, is held in its position by the aid of an additional swing cover provided below the pivotable housing cover proper. Said additional swing cover comprises a plate-shaped projection on its underside, which, in the closed state of the additional swing cover, projects between a spring device firmly arranged in the housing and the printer head cartridge, thus increasing and equalizing the pressure exerted by the spring on the cartridge. That structure results from the printing device commercially available under the name of “design runner” according to the aforementioned US 2007/0120937 A1. It involves the disadvantage of the spring pressing against the printing unit cartridge even when the additional swing cover is opened, thus causing the housing-fixed contacts and the cartridge contacts to rub against each other on the opposite side, both when inserting the cartridge and when removing the same.
From JP 2005-335230 A, an ink jet printer is known, in which a replaceable print cartridge is pressed against housing contacts by the aid of a torsion spring and an angle lever. With a cartridge inserted, one arm of the torsion spring presses onto the cartridge from above, and another spring arm presses an arm of the angle lever against the cartridge.
US 2002/0135634 A1 discloses a printer comprising printer heads that are adjustable along a rail transversely to a paper to be printed; each of the printer heads contains a print cartridge, which is pressed into a contact position by a lever mechanism and a helical compression spring engaging the former.
Another table printer including a carriage that is movable along a rail and accommodates a print cartridge is known from US 2009/0278902 A1. An upper cover and a locking lever are provided for fixing the print cartridge in the carriage.